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03/09/2009 |
From Fire into Form: The Power of
Bronze
Current exhibition at the Iziko SA National Gallery. Closes: 25 October 2009
How are bronzes cast? How do they age? What possible finishes can be obtained? These and many other questions will be answered in this unusual exhibition. Examples from the 1500s in Italy to contemporary South African works produced this very year are but some of nearly 100 bronzes in this major show of sculpture. The exhibition is curated from the collection of the Iziko SA National Gallery and the Sanlam Art Collection, augmented by loans from artists and private collections in Cape Town. A focus of the exhibition is the amazing variety of forms and finishes possible in bronze sculptures, and the technical processes behind their making. The exhibition is backed up by explanatory texts and by an interactive CD-ROM through which visitors can inform themselves on a variety of bronze-related questions.
Many bronzes in the Iziko Sang Collection are being seen again for the first time in decades. They are being shown alongside recent presentations of superb French bronzes gifted to the Gallery by Mrs Donna Nicholas in memory of her late husband, Dimitri Nicholas in 2004. These include a highly-valuable cast of the famous Gloria Victis! by Antonin Mercie. The Iziko Sang joins the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC as one of the national museums in the world to own a cast of this iconic work. Another was owned by the late pop-idol Michael Jackson and it is still to be seen at his Never-Never Land ranch. A number of French bronzes, including a Rodin, were also given to the Gallery by its early patron, Alfred De Pass in the 1920s. The spirit of Rodin permeates the exhibition, notably in works by British artists such as Glyn Philpot and Charles Ricketts.
Works by Norman Catherine, Nandi Mntambo, Claudette Schreuders are impressive examples of contemporary South African work, and the Gallery’s collection of Ashanti bronzes, acquired in 1971, represent the important bronze-casting traditions of West Africa.
Curated by Hayden Proud 021-4674676.
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